Not to be deterred, at 8.00 pm the engineers began work on two footbridges. It was a dark night, drizzling, with some gas, desultory shelling and ‘the intermittent rattle’ of machine-guns. The men had not had a chance to reconnoitre the tracks, but the roads were good, and they could move material up close to the canal. Cautiously and silently the engineers carried their materials, including bulky cork floats, to the canal, and then floated them for 1000 yards. By 3.00 am all the materials were in place and the men worked frantically — and for a time in gas masks — to complete the bridges by 5.00 am. They must have been frustrated on completing their task, however, as the marshes beyond were discovered to be impassable and the attack for 30 August was cancelled.3
Drawing of Midelton’s Track. (War Diary)
The 15th Field Company continued its efforts to try to bridge the Somme south of Péronne. Sapper Herbert Bailey, a 44-year-old bricklayer from Malvern in Victoria, recorded that the men were constantly under enemy observation. At one stage a salvo of shells landed right in the middle of them, killing or wounding several mules, horses and men. There were no safe places for the men to wait or rest while officers undertook reconnaissance. At the same time, the Germans were doing everything in their power to slow the progress of the Australians, even targeting water points, natural assembly points for men on which the Germans had registered their artillery, having occupied the area themselves just days before.4
At 7.00 pm on 30 August, Major Harold Greenway, the 15th Field Company’s commander, instructed Lieutenant Thomas Midelton, a 34-year-old architect and civil engineer from Bondi in Sydney, to construct a footbridge across the Somme just to the south of Péronne. During his reconnaissance, Midelton found an old tramway on piers and prepared 70 yards of this to carry duckboards laid on rails. To the east of the tramway was a footworn pathway some 100 yards long winding through an avenue of trees, beyond which was water and a destroyed bridge which could be reconstructed using cork piers. Further on was a plantation of big trees, indicating firm ground. A cork bridge over the canal provided access to the track and the sappers had to carry sufficient duckboards and cork piers to successfully complete the track, around 300 yards long, for the infantry to cross. While construction was underway, infantry patrols of the 57th Battalion were ferried across using collapsible boats and, when Midelton’s men completed the track, at 4.00 pm on 1 September, further patrols were sent over. However, all the patrols ran into German machine-guns and were forced to withdraw. At this stage the engineers could not even contemplate building a bridge for field artillery as the crossing was too dangerous.5
This track is an example of the complexity of the tasks undertaken by the engineers, ahead of the line and under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. Working closely with the 14th Field Company and the 5th Pioneer Battalion, Midelton ‘was indefatigable in his efforts to bring his task to a successful conclusion’.6 The track was marked on all subsequent maps as ‘Midelton’s Track’ and sketched in superb detail in the unit war diary. Tom Midelton was awarded the MC. He completed extensive reconnaissance work for the motor transport bridges at Eterpigny and Lamire Farm on 5 September and was involved in mine rescue in the Péronne area, having attended courses in mine rescue and camouflage in England earlier in 1918. Such were the skills of the engineers.
The record for the 15th Field Company during the operations from 1–5 September was impressive. Working on the southern side of the town, it constructed two footbridges on the rail and road approaches to Péronne, as well as two bridges for motor transport on the main road and a bridge for field artillery between Péronne and Flamicourt. Construction of these bridges was no simple matter —all involved multiple crossings over roads, railways and waterways. As well as building bridges, the unit was concerned with roads, mines and water supply. Indeed, it was remarkable how quickly the engineers reorganised Péronne once the town and its surrounds were completely cleared of Germans. The commander of the 5th Division engineers even investigated draining the swamps into the Somme Canal, but the different water levels made this too difficult. Harold Greenway wrote that ‘undoubtedly the week August 29th to Sept 5th is the most glorious in the pages of the Company’s history.’7 Pompey Elliott believed that the work was facilitated and the needs of the infantry well served by positioning Greenway with him at his brigade headquarters.8
5th Division Engineers erecting a pontoon bridge across the Somme marshes just prior to the capture of Péronne. (AWM AO1908)
Once Monash changed the direction for the attack on Mont St Quentin and Péronne on 29 August, establishing bridgeheads for the infantry, artillery and transport to cross on the east-west line of the river was absolutely essential. There were three clear crossing points – at Feuillères, Ommiécourt and Halle — but all the bridges had been destroyed. The Australians only captured Feuillères on 29 August but by 5.00 pm the 5th Field Company had constructed a bridge under continuous heavy shellfire, with Sapper William Bridge, a tall, 27-year-old contractor from Gloucester in New South Wales, mentioned for his good work.
The bridges at Feuilleres. (War Diary)
Feuillères was not a simple bridgehead: there were two bridges across the canal and four across the ‘river’ itself. The engineers had to remove charges from these bridges, one of which, across the river, was badly blown and burning. In some cases they could make use of intact features and there was plenty of material lying around, but until Mont St Quentin was captured, Feuillères remained under direct observation by the Germans. After the 5th Brigade used this crossing on the morning of 30 August, the 5th, 6th and 9th field companies worked constantly over the next few days to prepare a bridge to take field artillery and motor transport, including motor ambulances, and traffic continued to use it while work was in progress, a common occurrence. The crossing became a major artery for the Australian advance.9
At 3.00 am on 30 August, a footbridge was completed across the Somme Canal opposite Halle where the 5th Brigade had intended to cross prior to the discovery of the impassable swamps on the other side. Following careful but daring reconnaissance of the bridges, tracks and swamps, well forward of the infantry, Captain Louis Noedl and the engineers and sappers of the 7th Field Company commenced work on the crossings under heavy shell and machine-gun fire at 3.30 pm on 31 August, during the height of the battle for Mont St Quentin. A second necessary crossing over the Canal du Nord, which meets the Somme near Halle, was to prove very difficult. At this point the men had 450 yards to cover, part of it comprising an old German footway and a bridge which was partially destroyed. The river was some ten feet deep. Incredibly, the engineers completed the crossing in around two hours, with 14 men working on the construction.
Drawing of a bridge constructed near Halle by the 7th Field Company Engineers. (War Diary)
The men then set to work repairing the bridges which had been blown up or damaged by shellfire so that the field artillery could cross; the guns were urgently required across the river to support the infantry attack. Time and time again they tried to complete the task, but were driven off, suffering some casualties. Evan Wisdom advised Noedl that he also had to protect the bridgeheads, a task accomplished by a Lewis gun section of sappers. On the night of 31 August, the Germans subjected the engineers to ‘a rare hell of shellfire’ when sleep was utterly out of the question. One shell landed in a bivouac, killing four of the nine men sheltering in it.10
On the morning of 1 September, having had little sleep, they resumed their task under even heavier shellfire. Undaunted, Louis Noedl pushed on, completing a bridge at around 7.00 pm after ten gruelling hours’ work by 60 or 70 men, including some from the 2nd Pioneer Battalion. This bridge was 276 feet long, 80 feet of which had been completely rebuilt by overhauling piers and superstructure. More work was done over the next few days before the bridge was deemed safe for motor transport on 5 September. Sapper Alexander Frederickson, a 36-year-old mechanical and electrical draftsman from Elsternwick in Victoria, drew a sketch, included in the wa
r diary, of this fine achievement.11 Louis Noedl, a 31-year-old electrical fitter born in New Zealand, was recommended for a bar to the MC he had won at Fromelles in 1916, but was awarded the DSO instead. He was the first of the engineers to receive this distinction, having risen through the ranks from sapper in 1915 to captain in 1918.
The 7th Field Company’s history described the period from 28 August to 6 September as ‘one of the most memorable and successful in the unit’s history. At no other time had so much and such a variety of work been carried out in such a short period.’ The bridging work was spectacular, ‘hard and dangerous’, but casualties were surprisingly light.12
While the Ommiécourt crossing, so important for its access to Cléry on the northern bank of the Somme, was a challenge for the infantry, it was even more so for the engineers of the 5th Field Company, as this was a complex bridgehead. At this point, the Somme Canal ceased to follow the line of the river and instead cut directly across the Ommiécourt peninsula. There were two bridges where the canal left the river at its western end. In addition, there were three bridges very close together across the river itself, providing direct access to the eastern end of Cléry. The Germans had these crossings covered from Mont St Quentin and had also placed eight machine-guns in a pocket between the road and the railway just to the north of the crossing. This was probably the thick nest neutralised by Daniel Anthon and his men of the 20th Battalion on 30 August.
When the Australians captured the Ommiécourt peninsula on 30 August, the engineers strengthened the main bridge across the canal and, at 2.00 am on 31 August, they completed a footbridge across the river for infantry in single file. The 19th Battalion crossed this bridge for its attack on Mont St Quentin. The engineers then reinforced the bridge to take horse transport, while they constructed another footbridge, this one completed by 2.00 pm on 31 August. Yet another bridge was built for horse transport, the men starting work on this at 1.15 pm. When completed, it would be capable of taking very heavy loads including 60-pounder guns. At the same time, they repaired another bridge close by. Some materials were brought in, but they also made good use of any debris they could salvage. Nonetheless, the whole procedure was extremely complicated. As the battle raged, the engineers remained at work under continuous shelling, at times needing to withdraw from their exposed position which was often under direct observation from German balloons. However, they completed all the bridges by 7.30 pm on 31 August, without casualties, a truly remarkable feat. These bridges were then strengthened on 1 September for motor transport and Ommiécourt became another main artery for the Australian operations.
James Robertson, commanding the 6th Brigade, conferred with officers of the 6th Field Company on 30 August with a view to locating a site for a footbridge at Buscourt, between Ommiécourt and Feuillères. The engineers needed to bridge around 500 yards of marsh. A trestle footbridge, six feet wide, was already in place, but required major repairs to its superstructure. There was no crossing over the Somme Canal, so the men erected a single pontoon bridge which was used in conjunction with the footbridge across the marsh. They completed this crossing, which ran in an almost straight line from the southern bank to the northern, by midnight and it was used on 31 August by both the 6th and 14th brigades.
The last minute change in the direction of the attack on Péronne ‘threw a tremendous burden’ on the 14th Field Company whose commander told the men that, in the absence of clear intelligence on the condition of the waterways surrounding Péronne or the situation on the Cologne River, they would simply have to use their initiative and ‘play it by ear’.13 All regarded this as a hazardous undertaking. At Cléry, the sappers took all their tools off the pack animals and carried them. In the attack on 1 September, they moved forward behind the infantry waves, although one section advanced with the infantry and with bayonets fixed. One sapper picked up an abandoned Lewis gun and fired it at a German machine-gun; another sapper, completely lost, advanced into Péronne with the 54th Battalion and captured a number of German prisoners.
Arthur Hall implies that men from the 54th Battalion were across the moat and into Péronne before the field company had a chance to do any repair work to the bridge near the citadel. However, the moat was so choked with debris that it was not difficult to cross.14 The infantry also needed a footbridge at the western end of the town, where the Etang du Cam is now located, and the engineers constructed a temporary footbridge, cutting away the banks on either side to make it easier for the stretcher-bearers. They suffered seven casualties while completing this work. By the evening of 1 September, they had fully reconnoitred the moat and stabilised the main crossings into Péronne from the north to allow the infantry to cross. The footbridges had been repaired, as had three footbridges linking St Radegonde to the southern bank, with some construction completed under water. The 14th Field Company war diary records that ‘our casualties were heavy – but not relatively to the importance of the operation.’15
On 5 September, as Australian and British forces pushed across the Somme, the 14th Field Company moved to Lamire Farm, south of Péronne, where it reconstructed the bridge, a span of 530 yards across canal and swamp. The bridge was ten feet wide, with around 500 feet of gaps blown into its surface. Ninety men worked for 32 hours to rebuild the whole superstructure which opened for horse transport at 4.00 pm on 7 September.
The 14th Field Artillery Brigade crossing the Somme by means of a temporary bridge constructed by the engineers. The photograph gives an indication of the debris created when the Germans destroyed the bridges. Photo taken 6 September 1918. (AWM EO3233)
Monash realised the importance of these crossings and appreciated the expertise of the engineers in their construction. All evidence would indicate that he had little idea of how difficult it would be, but his policy of securing and then strengthening the bridgeheads as quickly as possible proved sound. What is surprising is how few casualties were suffered by engineers or infantry in forcing the passage of the Somme, a comment on the skill and discipline of the officers and their men.
The work of the engineers did not stop with the crossing of the river. Once the Australians had captured Mont St Quentin and Péronne it was also important to repair the railways. Rawlinson considered this the determining factor if the advance was to continue east and for any attack on the Hindenburg Line. His diary entry for 6 September suggests that he was pleased with the progress.16 Herbert Bailey mentioned the speed with which the railhead was brought forward, with trains running on the light and heavy railways just days after Péronne had fallen.17
The wires were cut and the wireless smashed
Communications were the nervous system of the army in the field and the essential instrument of command.18 The signal organisation had increased in complexity and technical developments in communications paralleled those in the other arms as the war progressed and, by 1918, they had become quite sophisticated by the standards of the time. However, on the battlefield they frequently broke down, leaving commanders guessing where their men were or what was happening in the operations underway. In the Australian Corps, signal companies were attached to each division, with sections working with brigades and battalions to keep the network alive. They comprised a distinct branch of the engineers and their work was highly technical, often frustrating and very dangerous.
Open warfare in 1918 brought an increased emphasis on communications and telephone and telegraph lines required abnormal lengths of cable to keep them operating. At Mont St Quentin-Péronne, the task of establishing communications fell to the cable detachments ‘whose cable wagons were used more extensively than ever before’.19 The men worked tirelessly; there were no buried routes, only ground lines which were subjected to shellfire and the movement of guns and transport. The use of wireless and visual signalling such as lamps was more extensive than previously. There were no pigeons available for the attacks and the distance from brigade to battalion headquarters, often across the Somme River, made communications more difficult and th
e maintenance of the lines more challenging.
By 1918 wireless had become an indispensable tool of the communications network and a Wilson wireless set was installed at 2nd Division headquarters. The lighter, but still cumbersome Trench sets were established at each brigade headquarters, with others still further forward for the attack on Mont St Quentin. These stations maintained contact with one another as well as the stations of flanking brigades and divisions.
Continuous Wave wireless was particularly important for communications between aircraft and artillery and in linking both of these arms with the infantry commanders. Three of these sets worked with the 2nd Division to maintain communications between artillery brigades and their batteries, particularly those well forward in the field, and proved useful for reporting German movements. The divisional artillery signalling office remained close to divisional headquarters throughout the operation and artillery brigades were connected by wire to the infantry brigade with which they were working as well as to the divisional artillery exchange. The movement of batteries across the river created considerable work for the signallers.
Major Stanley Watson commanded the 2nd Division Signal Company and was an experienced and competent signaller. Watson enlisted in Adelaide in 1914 and served with the 1st Division signals from the Anzac landing on 25 April 1915 until the evacuation, when he was the last officer to embark from North Beach. Transferred to the 2nd Division Signal Company, he rose to command the company in 1917 at the rank of major. He was highly decorated, mentioned in despatches three times, awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle 5th Class, the MC in 1916 and the DSO for his work during the battle of Amiens, the advance, and Mont St Quentin in 1918. In September 1918 he was one of the original Anzacs consigned for home leave to Australia. He had worked on the Adelaide railways before the war and returned home to become the General Traffic Manager and Deputy Railways Commissioner.
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